Hybrid polymerases having the ability to produce long amplicons

Abstract

The present invention provides DNA polymerases having increased efficiency of amplification of long amplicons. The present invention also provides for methods of amplifying target nucleic acid molecules with the DNA polymerases for increasing the efficiency of amplification of long amplicons.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A polypeptide comprising a DNA polymerase having an amino acid sequence at least 97% identical to SEQ ID NO:2. 
     
     
       2. The polypeptide of  claim 1 , wherein the DNA polymerase comprises SEQ ID NO:2. 
     
     
       3. The polypeptide of  claim 1 , wherein the DNA polymerase is linked to a non-specific DNA binding domain. 
     
     
       4. The polypeptide of  claim 3 , wherein the DNA polymerase linked to the non-specific DNA binding domain has higher efficiency for amplification of an amplicon of at least 7.5 kb as compared to a DNA polymerase consisting of SEQ ID NO:8. 
     
     
       5. The polypeptide of  claim 3 , wherein the non-specific DNA binding domain comprises an amino acid sequence at least 85% identical to SEQ ID NO:4. 
     
     
       6. The polypeptide of  claim 3 , wherein the non-specific DNA binding domain comprises SEQ ID NO:4. 
     
     
       7. The polypeptide of  claim 1 , wherein the polypeptide is at least 97% identical to SEQ ID NO:5. 
     
     
       8. The polypeptide of  claim 1 , wherein the polypeptide comprises SEQ ID NO:5.